Payson McConnell — Science Leadership Academy @ Center City

Payson McConnell Capstone

Posted by Payson McConnell in CTE Senior Capstone · Kamal/Ugworji · Wed on Monday, May 10, 2021 at 4:40 pm

For my capstone, I wanted to use the skills I learned in CTE Engineering to make the new building feel more like home. One of the things that everybody misses the most from the old building is all the unique spots spread out across the building where people would hang out. In the new building, a lot of that is missing because those spots haven’t been created yet, so I set out to make one. I decided that the best way for me to accomplish that would be to put some benches and wall art in place. For the location, I chose the 6th floor, outside of the Engineering and DigVid rooms. I chose that spot because it was important to me as an engineering student and because I noticed many people working in that hallway and sitting on the floor. Another important thing that I wanted for these benches was for them to be made out of recycled plastic material. Since the benches will most likely be there for a long time, I wanted them to be more than benches and have some kind of reminder built into them. Being made out of recycled plastic, they will stay as a reminder that SLA is a place that values sustainability and the environment. The finished product of my capstone is two park benches, made out of 100% recycled plastic material, and two pieces of art (both the work of SLA alumni), one for Engineering and one for Digivid.

Additional Pictures: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JIS66rDFQCjH7vkKFI5-RAQHHF704_Rd/view?usp=sharing

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1njJbzGf63gV_ayiaeuWFfO6GXjrols5mPY2IncYrdcM/edit?usp=sharing

Focusing on Your Strengths

Posted by Payson McConnell on Thursday, September 27, 2018 at 9:37 pm

Most people are painfully aware of their weaknesses. This can lead to depression and a lack of motivation to reach their full potential. There is nothing wrong with wanting to turn your weakness into strengths, but really every single person is full of strong characteristics. Recently I have realized how important it is to consider your own strengths and allow that to help motivate you. It isn’t good to think about your good qualities in a prideful way, but in a healthy way that can benefit your mental wellbeing.

One of the strengths that I have realized about myself is my tendency to be open-minded. I’m usually willing to listen to reason and not jump to conclusions. Many people are willing to talk to me about personal matters because they know that I won’t judge them right away. This has positively affected my life because it has caused me to form many strong relationships with my friends and family members.

Another strength that I have noticed about myself is my inquisitive mindset. I love to think about why things are the way they are. This mindset is one of the reasons why I don’t ever like to give up. I always want to get to the end and learn from it. It has helped me a lot in life, and it is probably one of the major reasons that I’m at SLA right now.

The third, and last, strength that I’m going to highlight about myself is my dedicated and hardworking nature. I don’t give up on projects and I always want to do my best in all the areas of my life. In school, this sometimes backfires on me and I end up in a group that makes me do all the work, but more often it makes people want to work with me because they know I won’t let them down and I will do my part to the best of my ability. This is something that I really like about myself. It’s really nice to think that people feel like they can depend on you.

After writing this, I have realized how good this was for me. This has helped me to develop a more positive image of myself because I usually focus more on my weaknesses than my strengths. I would suggest that everyone take some time to focus on their strengths and build a healthy self-image. It has helped me and I'm sure it would help every one else too.

Element Print

Posted by Payson McConnell on Thursday, May 31, 2018 at 10:22 am

I made a print based off of the element plutonium. Plutonium's atomic number is 94. Plutonium is well known for its radioactivity. While its best known use was for atomic bombs during World War II, it is more commonly used in nuclear power plants and back up batteries for space probes. My print does not resemble any of those uses because I chose to make it a pop culture reference. In the famous 80's movie, Back to the Future, the main characters used a time traveling Delorean that was powered by plutonium. I thought it would be something fun to make because it's what a lot of people think of when they hear plutonium. To make my print, I traced my design onto a piece of tracing paper and then used that to transfer it to my stamp. I made prints with my stamp by rolling a brayer covered in paint across it until it was covered. Then I put a blank piece of paper over top and pressed it down evenly with a wooden spoon. When I peeled it off I let it dry for a while then used a ruler to tear the edges down to a 4x6 piece of paper. The last thing I did was mount it on a 6x8 piece of construction paper so it had a 1 inch border. If I were to do the whole process over again, I would probably spend more time shading it in evenly. It looks kind of blotchy and weird. I was also kind of disappointed that a crease formed in my stamp that transfered to my print. Next time I would be more careful about that. Overall I really enjoyed this project, but my favorite part was the actual printing.

Negative Space Cut Out

Posted by Payson McConnell in Art - Freshman · Hull · d1 Band on Monday, April 23, 2018 at 2:42 pm

In art, negative space is the space around the object of an image. For the example that I made, I used a black and white template and cut out the parts that were white and the parts that were black. I made construction paper versions of them and put them on either side of a different colored piece of construction paper. Negative space helps artists make more precise images, and it makes things stick out to viewers.

Me Slide 2.0

Posted by Payson McConnell on Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 11:16 am

I made 1 Google slide that represents me for a project in tech class. When it was time to present, I thought that I had made a great slide and everybody would like it. I was actually very wrong and there were a couple issues with my slide. My group told me that it looked boring and it didn’t get their attention. I tried to follow the advice of Presentation Zen and use a little text as possible and I might have gone too far. I only had my name and a stormtrooper doing the moonwalk. They were in black and white for contrast and I wanted to keep that, so I had to make the words more interesting. My name was in a boring font so I needed to change it. On Google, I searched what font is used for the Star Wars logo, since I had a stormtrooper on my slide. That exact font doesn’t exist on Google, so I used another font in the same family. Another thing they told me was that just my name was boring, so I decided to replace it with a quote. Between what I have learned from Presentation Zen and my classmates, I’m sure that from now on, all my slides will be way better.

Me Slide

Posted by Payson McConnell on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 9:23 am

-I made a slide about me using the information from the sources Ms. Hull gave my class.

-After reading the presentation zen article, I realized that I had to resist the urge to put a lot of text so I wouldn’t give my audience cognitive overload

-It also taught me that strong contrast is good for making things pop out, so I used black, the darkest value color, for the background and white, the lightest value color, for the stormtrooper and my name

-I also researched the rule of thirds because it was a little confusing. It meant that if the slide were to be split into 3 by 3 squares, you would place important things on the intersections of those boxes. I used the rule of thirds to figure out the best spot to put my stormtrooper.

-Before reading the sources, I thought I knew how to make a good slide. It turns out I was wrong and I will use what I learned from it on all my future projects.

Home Network Payson McConnell

Posted by Payson McConnell in Technology - Freshman · Hull · d2 Band on Friday, October 6, 2017 at 8:37 pm

1. Explain your L.A.N. Local Area Network - all the devices on your internet connection.

I get my connection to the internet through my ISP. My ISP is Verizon. They send the connection to me through a fiber optic cable that connects to my combination router/modem. I have 7 devices wirelessly connected to it. The devices connected are: a PS4, a Macbook, an iPad, and 4 iPhones.

2. Reflect on what you learned about networks, did you have an OMG moment that you learned something new and interesting? If not, write about what you learned.

Before this class, I didn’t know what all of the different parts of a network were called. It is cool that even though I couldn’t fix a major network problem, I will still have an idea of what is going on.

3. What would you tell other people that they need to know about having an ISP/Home network?

Make sure that you are familiar with the parts of a network so that an ISP won’t take advantage of you and make you pay for things that you don’t need.